


Berserkr

by ImpulsivelyFicced



Category: Thor (Comics), Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Angst, Brothers, Implied Incest, Loki has faith, Loki has more hope than is probably wise, M/M, Mjolnir - Freeform, Mjölnir might not be the best judge of character, Not Fluff, Thor is heavily medicated by magic, Thor isn't really Thor, War, berserkr!Thor, except she kind of is, implied romantic feelings, reversed positions except not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-21
Packaged: 2018-01-01 21:59:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1049051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImpulsivelyFicced/pseuds/ImpulsivelyFicced
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor, once a beloved prince of Asgard, is imprisoned after he commits the heinous crime of massacre and is marked forever as an uncontrollable Berserkr.</p>
<p>Odin and the rest of Asgard is content to forget there ever was another son of Asgard, but Loki holds onto the hopeless hope of a younger brother that his brother is still somewhere in there.</p>
<p>When war comes to the Nine Realms, Loki knows they will not be able to survive the seemingly endless armies of their enemy without Thor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by these two tumblr posts: http://wantstobelieve.tumblr.com/post/66024930815/give-me-mjolnir-and-i-am-yours-to  
> and  
> http://dianaaprince.tumblr.com/post/66641841257/au-thor-as-a-feared-berserkr-warrior-of-asgard

_**Berserkr** _ **!Thor Beloved Prince!Loki**

Loki remembers when they were children and Thor had tackled Lord Bornir to the ground and broken his nose for calling Loki a runt. ‘ _Really_ ,” he thinks, ‘we should have foreseen what would happen.’

They don’t know what made Thor lose control, he’d been one of their father’s best warriors _because_ of his amazing control over the Berserkr Rage, but lose control he did. Loki knows their father laments the loss of his younger son, and Loki hates himself for thinking that maybe, _maybe_ , he only misses Thor for the valuable tool he made in battle and not for the lost child himself. He tries not to think like that, but the thoughts sneak up on him anyway.

They found Thor in the square of the small village, clothes and hair soaked with blood and face streaked with it like gruesome war paint. It had taken twenty warriors and all of Loki’s knowledge of his brother’s pressure points and the magic of the hammer to bring him down. And that was what scared Loki the most about what had happened, if he was being honest. Even after Thor had committed such atrocities, for not even children had been spared his rage, Mjölnir still served him. Loki wondered if the spells were flawed, the magic that choose only the worthy faulty. And yet, it also gave Loki hope that his brother was still his brother… _somehow_.

Loki visited Thor’s cell a lot more than anyone would ever know, even Thor. For he never visited as himself, it had been forbidden by their father. Sometimes he was a guard, another of the dozen faceless men that guarded his brother. Other times a cat, agile and immune to magic, slipping around and between the wards placed around Thor’s cage to curl up on one corner of the cell. Sometimes Thor would pet him, or allow the black creature to curl up by his legs, and Loki has had to run to his room to hide his tears on more than one occasion.

Loki misses his brother, and still believes in him where even their mother has given up on her angry young child, so when the war comes and they lose warriors and land at great cost he has just enough shameless hope that his first thought is for his big brother. Asgardian justice is swift and final, a retrial almost impossible after sentencing, especially when the perpetrator showed no remorse as Thor had, but Loki _knows_ that Thor has changed. ‘He must have.’ He thinks as he begins to plant the seeds of an idea in their father’s head. When Odin, grim faced and stiff-jawed, emerges from his study with his decree Loki is there to step forward and pledge to take responsibility for him.

“All transgressions he commits will be charged against you as well.” Odin warns him harshly as Loki bows before him, fist clenched and arm crossed to his other shoulder. Frigga looks on with worried eyes, but does not step forward to stop him.

“I know, and I will accept any consequence. You said it yourself father; this is a chance we must take in order to save all the Nine.” Loki swears, smile hidden by the dark curtain of his hair and his bowed head.

Odin sighs, but grants Loki his blessing and hands him the keys to Thor’s prison as well as a set of manacles laced with magic that would keep Thor controlled.

Loki’s steps do not falter as he walks down endless staircases towards the bowels of the palace, past thieves and murderers, illegal or dangerous magic users and tax avoiders, down deep into the place where only the most dangerous of prisoners are kept. Thor’s cell was brightly lit, giving him no place to hide, but it was by far the most comfortable of all the cells. Thor was a prince, after all.

He did not seem to notice Loki at first, and Loki was glad of it. He had not thought of anything to say to Thor, trusting in his silver tongue to give him the right words when he needed them, and he wanted a chance to look at his brother through his own eyes before being distracted by words and bargains and explanations.

Eventually though, Loki could not linger in the shadows for a minute longer and stepped forward. “Thor,” he began, before immediately stepping back in fear and horror. Thor roared and ran at Loki with one of the four chairs in the cell, seemingly oblivious to the clear wall between them, and Loki feared for a moment that it would not hold him. But before Thor was even close enough to swing the chair, he was blown back and landed with a crash, the broken pieces of the chair strewn around him. Loki ran forward, worry at war with the fear in his stomach and making him feel as though he’d swallowed snake’s venom, his hands meeting the cold glass and pressing on it hard.

“Thor!” Loki shouts, and that seemed to rouse Thor again. He looked up, but Loki was surprised to see that the anger that had sparked his brother’s eyes just a moment ago was gone, replaced by something almost…drowsy.

“Loki!” He mumbles, surprise fighting through the haze for a moment as he took in his younger brother. “What a pleasant surprise… I did not expect to ever see you again.” A sickly sweet smile tugged at Thor’s lips, but that only served to make the venom in Loki’s stomach slosh unpleasantly. This was not his brother.

“Yes Thor, I am here…” Loki said, almost more to himself than to Thor.

“Why? Surely father,” and here the anger almost overtook Thor again, but a sharp scent hit Loki’s nose and a glaze fell over Thor’s eyes again. “has forbidden you from coming here.”

Loki found himself telling the truth. “Yes, he did. But he gave me special permission today. Please Thor, the universe is in danger, and I fear that we will not be able to save it without you.” He bit his lip, worried that he had given too much away, but Thor only tilted his head to the side like a curious animal. It would have been sweet, innocent even, an echo of a time Loki had long thought lost, if not for Thor’s glazed over eyes turning his beloved brother into a marionette.

His eyes drifted to the manacles in Loki’s hands, and Thor held out his hands. “Show me.”

XXX

The hilltop is windy and their hair twists through the air like flames as the brother’s climb. They don’t talk, but noise accompanies them anyway: crashes and explosions from the battle raging on the other side of the slope and the clink of Thor’s chains. Loki is nervous and jittery, a scared animal next to Thor’s almost catatonic stillness of being. He has been that way since Loki closed the manacles around Thor’s wrists, neck, and ankles, and it pulls at Loki until he is almost willing to rip them off just to see Thor’s rage. At least then his brother would be acting like his brother.

They reach the crest of the hill fairly quickly and Loki pauses there, letting Thor survey the scene that is already branded into his mind. Fires burn where magic has left scars against the earth and armor glints in the muted sun. Hundreds, thousands maybe, are fighting there, the strange beings that threaten the balance of the universe thick where forces from Asgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, and even a small group of Jotun that had turned up unannounced a few days ago, are spread thin.

Thor breaths deeply, and a spark of awareness lights the edges of his eyes. ‘It’s the gore,’ Loki’s mind tells him, ‘He smells spilled blood and torn flesh and it lights a fire within him. Norns help us I may doom us all with my foolish hope.’

“Well?” Loki asks, voice harsh and sharp as the wind wicks the words away. “Will you aid us?”

Thor turns to him before answering and smiles, a smile so genuine that it almost reaches his eyes and for a moment Loki recognizes his brother again. Thor holds out his hand and says his first words since the prison.

"Give me Mjölnir, and I am yours to command.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki knows they should be starting slow but there isn't the time for that and maybe perhaps he's just this side of too hopeful as he gives Thor back his weapon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters are probably going to be fairly short until I get into the feel of things. Or perhaps I'll just keep it this way. Might update faster then.

**Chapter 2**

There are not many controlled environments on a battlefield, not even long-controlled territory is really safe. Not with so pernicious and volatile an enemy. But they cannot go back to Asgard, there just isn’t _time_. So they set up a tent on the far edge of their current camp, almost within the no-man’s land they’ve been fighting over for far too long. Loki had balked at the tent, “If Thor loses control in there while we’re inside it will be like setting a match to resin soaked logs!” But he’d been largely ignored because while no one else much fancied the idea of what they were doing, they liked the idea of doing it in full view of the enemy even less. They also positioned Thor so he was facing the enemy lines, “just in case”, and it made Loki want to _scream_. He hated warfare.

Loki retrieved Mjölnir himself, withdrawing the ornate box the dwarves had gifted the mighty hammer in all those years ago from his private trunk that had been set up just outside the tent. Although the hammer had never chosen him, there was a kind of Wilde respect between them. Loki knew enough of the magic forged in the runes to recognize the importance behind the dull shine the weapon had taken on after Odin put it into his keeping, and he had taken  to talking to it, as he remembered Thor doing. “I am taking you to him.” Loki whispered as he pushed through the flaps of the tent, and the box fairly buzzed in his hands.

Warriors lined the curve of the tent, some of their strongest and least Death fearing glaring hot and hard at the lone figure standing before them. He had once been a dear friend to them all. ‘And perhaps,’ Loki considered, ‘that is why they are so fearful of him now. He is a warning, a look into their possible future should they ever lose control as he did.’ Thor’s old friends, the Lady Sif and Fandral, Volstagg, and Hogun, had not been invited, but Loki knew they would be standing, pensive and tense, on the edge of the camp, eyes trained on the tent.

Although Loki had wanted this to be as private as possible, only his mother’s intervention had prevented Loki from dismissing the guard all together, he suddenly wanted Sif and the Warriors Three there. If Thor saw them, he might be able to regain control easier. Just like Loki hoped would happen if his brother saw him. He shook his head. It was too late now. Thor’s eyes were riveted on the box in Loki’s hands, and he saw the wards around his brother’s manacled wrists spark with strain. Loki was not sure they would hold if he delayed any longer to send for the others. At least Thor’s eyes seemed clearer now, with no spark of the uncontrollable anger and blood lust. Thor simply yearned for his weapon, as Loki yearned for his magic.

Loki walked closer, until he could see the blue of his brother’s eyes, but stopped just short of where Thor could actually reach for him. It heartened him when Thor did not try to reach for him anyway as an animal would, only watched.

“Thor!” Loki said, voice sharp as a needlepoint, and Thor looked up at him. For a moment, he looked just like the old Thor, as though Loki had just snapped at him for trying to distract Loki away from his books with soft lips and gentle touches. Loki wanted to reach out, cup Thor’s face, and kiss the inquisitive expression away. But it was not Thor. Loki was reminded of this fact quite viciously when the sharp tang of flaring magic hit his senses and Thor’s eyes glazed over once more. This was not his Thor. Not right now. Not yet.

But Thor was looking at him now and not the box, so Loki lifted the intricately carved lid and offered Mjölnir, now shining brightly in the candlelight, to his brother. Thor seized upon the handle almost immediately, but did little more than run his fingers over the worn-to-his-hand grip, caressing the metal and leather with almost a Lover’s touch. For a moment, Loki feared Thor would not be able to lift the hammer and that his brother had truly been lost. But, almost as soon as the thought entered Loki’s head, Thor pulled the hammer free of its soft cushion and swung it through the air, roaring triumphantly.

A lot of things happened all at the same time then. And though it seemed to him to last and eternity, Loki knew the whole thing had only really taken a few minutes at most. Loki saw the lightning crackle down Thor’s arm and over the thick head of the hammer, shattering the manacles as if they were made of silk, but the scene did not register fully. It was as though Loki was viewing the whole thing through a great glass window. Sound seemed to come from a long way off. That was, until someone seized him around the middle and began to pull him away from the Storm with Skin that was his big brother. Loki howled and screamed as the tent was torn asunder and cool air rushed to cool their faces. (And it would be hours later when they examined the tent and realized it had actually been Loki’s magic, let flowing by his emotions, that had ripped the seams apart and sent the thick hides fluttering down like handkerchiefs.)

“Let me go! Let me go that is my brother!” Loki screamed, clawing at the bare skin and sinewy muscle holding him back as Thor sent bolts careening out of his hammer and into the quickly gathering clouds. Finally, after Loki employed his teeth and shards of magic to his task, he was flung away to catch himself against the ground and push back towards Thor.

“Thor! Thor stop!” Loki flung himself onto Thor’s forearm, hoping to bring the deadly weapon that he had delivered into his brother’s hand down with all his weight, when he was suddenly lifted again, this time towards Thor. With a shock, Loki realized Thor was laughing, and had been laughing all the while.

“Loki! Oh Loki, my most belovéd brother!” And then Loki was being hugged as Thor sent one last bolt into the sky before bringing Mjölnir down, safe as it had been in Loki’s trunk, so he could wrap both arms around the younger.

When Loki managed to pull back from the embrace, though every fiber of his being was screaming at him to _just let it be_ , the look in Thor’s eyes was one of nothing but elation and peace. The blue was unmarred by storm of magic haze or berserkr trance; he was just a man reunited with his weapon, his brother, and his lover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you think Thor's all better now, you're wrong.

**Author's Note:**

> Not a regularly updating story exactly, and chapters will be short, but I'm experimenting with the universe so there should be at least a little more to come.


End file.
